


Try Again

by LyssGreen



Category: Hermitcraft, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Again sort of, Gen, Hermitcraft - Freeform, Sort of major character death, The rest of the hermits are clueless, Watcher!AU, Watchers, Watchers are a thing and Grian has knowledge of them from his time in evo, generally however normal minecraft respawn rules apply, it all makes sense eventually, mini lore drop inside, situational perma death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-11 16:44:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19931239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyssGreen/pseuds/LyssGreen
Summary: Dreams of another dimension where this world's Watcher tortured the Hermits for fun seemed just that, dreams. Unusual and disturbing dreams, yes, but everyone in that world died in the end in a new dimension that Grian had never heard of, himself included. So it couldn't be real. That would be insane.But when familiar situations that he could swear he had already seen occur in his nightmares begin to happen he's suddenly unsure of how certain he was that the dreams really are just dreams. Because if the dreams are happening, then all of his friends will soon be gone - and so will he. Armed with vague recollections and a faint thought that he's only getting one chance at this, Grian attempts to stop the future he knows about.





	Try Again

**Author's Note:**

> Note: just to be clear, this could get slightly dark at times

The four of them were accustomed to the absurd landscape of the Null by now as they stepped into the sickly green tinted landscape from out of the portal.

Dark towering pillars of stone that created a castle type structure, floating above the seemingly endless green fog below. They hadn’t tested how far down it went, or whether there was anything below the green that they could see. It had been deemed too risky early on, once they had learned that you didn’t respawn from a death here.

It was only the four left now, everyone else was long gone. All but Grian were wearing full diamond armour, elytra discarded for the extra protection a chest plate provided. Grian kept his elytra however, and in his inventory the only remaining firework rockets to propel it.

“This area is new.” Iskall thought aloud, glancing around the black brick fortress the portal spat them out at.

It was the first thing he had said in days, the man having changed greatly in temperament since it had all begun to go wrong. Losing Stress and Ren seemed to have been the tipping point for him. And Mumbo

False hummed slightly as a reply to the man. She had been hit hard by the losses too, losing the other women had hurt her the most. She hadn’t resorted to partial muteness like Iskall, but she wasn’t herself anymore. She fought recklessly in the Null dimension and without regard for her own health. The others had needed to interfere to save her life multiple times already.

Xisuma was arguably the worst affected. He spoke, and he still protected himself, but he had taken the death of every other hermit as a personal responsibility. At some point the care he showed for all of the hermits has mutated into an extreme paranoia that he would lose another and it would be all his fault.

And Grian, well he spent all of his time in the rapidly decaying garden area at the top of his base. The greenery had been steadily decaying since they had cleared the last portal, both inside and outside of his tower. And then the crops had begun to wither across the server. The last sugar cane plants dying marked the end of flying as creating rockets became impossible. Then it was the food plants. And then the animals. Ari the parrot had been the last creature left on the server until earlier in the day. Now they were all gone.

Grian had gone straight to the new portal after losing Ari and found Iskall, False and Xisuma already waiting.

“I’ll head off and scout the area,” Grian was quiet as he spoke, trying to fall into the routines that were already tried and tested so far. Someone had to move, they couldn’t delay it any further. Either they succeeded and revived the overworld by completing this area of the fortress. Or they died. For good. So far the routine they had created seemed like the best chance they had. The best fliers - only Grian now - scouted out the danger before returning to the rest of the group. It wasn't a perfect routine - as evident from the Hermits they had lost already. He shook his head slightly, unwilling to dwell on that at the moment. _I still have X, Iskall and Falsie to look after right now._

“I’ll fly straight for a couple hundred blocks, check for danger and then-“

“No.” The word was blunt and monotone.

The group turned to look at who had spoken. X's face behind his visor was pulled into a frown.

“But, X, this is just like all the times before, I’ll-“

“I said no, Grian. We aren’t splitting up this time.”

“Come on, he’s the best flyer we have, we need to know what we’re up against or-“

“I said no False!” X’s shout made even Iskall jump, “It’s only us left, I’m not losing anyone else, not this time. We’re sticking together as a group. Come on.” He walked off as he spoke, “Watch each other’s backs, we’ll get through this.”

Iskall, Grian and False shared a glance before following Xisuma, weapons in hand and unsure if they’d return to the overworld again.

-

Grian’s heart sunk as he heard the tear of his elytra breaking. He landed roughly, falling out of the air and barely breaking his fall with his one good leg. He stumbled, one arm flung out against the black brick wall to steady him. He could hear the Null Hounds snarling from down the dark hallways.

False had been right, he was the only one who could escape harm in these fortresses with his flying skills. He had had the best streak without being hurt while navigating these fortresses so far, though False's flying skills brought her a close second. 

Now False was gone, a Redstone trap took the floor from beneath her feet and she fell into the lime green fog below.

X had been so stunned and broken watching it that he didn’t move, just stared down the new hole in the floor where the blonde had just fallen.

Iskall had tried to drag Xisuma away, but in the end it was to no avail. The Manta’s swooped down and took X out, Iskall was forced to retreat with Grian.

They had managed to run for another hour or so, Iskall fighting off the creatures chasing them, Grian managing to haphazardly fly carrying Iskall’s weight over the traps and drop offs into the abyss below.

It was Grian’s clumsiness that did them in in the end. It was his fault, he had tried to turn too quickly and clipped a wall, knocking them both to the ground into a pack of Null Hounds. The creatures loomed high, clearly supposed to be some form of wolf but with the twisted proportions of endermen and the glowing purple eyes to match. One tore into Grian’s leg before he got a chance to fend them off, and without the regeneration that was in the overworld he knew that his leg wasn’t going to be much use until he got out of this dimension - if he got out. When Iskall jumped in to save him, Grian flew out, and watched as his last friend was lost to the hounds.

It all seemed to have happened so fast. Did he really expect any different? Even if he hadn't, it still hurt - seeing his last friends just disappear, the knowledge that they wouldn't respawn again weighed on him. But what was he supposed to do? 

And then he flew, flew until he ran out of rockets and until his elytra had finally torn. And there was really nothing he could do now, he couldn’t run, he couldn’t fly. His leg was useless, glancing down he saw the dark stain of blood on his clothes. He wasn’t sure what was more concerning, the way his leg looked and the way it couldn’t support any weight, or the fact that there wasn’t really any pain, just numbness, a cold sensation that was creeping in and taking away any of the pain. It was getting steadily harder to walk and dragging himself forward was becoming more and more tiring.

He stumbled around a corner and-

A dead end. The corridor ended, leaving only a balcony and a long fall down into the fog below.

He closed his eyes, he could hear the creatures getting closer, they knew where he was. Long ebony claws were clicking on the hard flooring and echoing through the corridor behind him. Warped and raspy growling accompanied it. They were coming. He took a deep breath, looking over the edge. There was no one left, just him. And if this was happening, at least he could choose how. It wouldn’t feel any different to the many times he dived through his base, just this time he wouldn’t be pulling up at the last second. A low growl behind him made him jump. Looking away from the abyss he turned slowly to see the creatures were there. He felt with his good leg, tapping his foot against it and gauging where the drop off was. And he stepped off the edge, falling soundlessly.

—

Grian jumped awake. He could feel the hammering of his heart in his chest, his breathing fast and panicked.

“What the-?”

_The Null, no this wasn't there. Was that a dream? It must have been. Where am I?_

He looked around. He was in his ship in a bottle at the bottom of the ocean, of course he was - where else would he be. That hadn’t been real. He told himself that again with a little more confidence. Even if that dream had felt so real... 

He blinked hard a couple times before laughing at himself. How silly, being so scared of a dream. And he went off to start working on his new modern base on the ocean above him – even if at the moment it was little more than a stone platform in the middle of the water. Slightly awkwardly from inexperience, he pulled on the Elytra he had just bought yesterday and grabbed some rockets, keen to get used to flying so that he was no longer the newbie at the skill and he headed off without thinking about the dream again.

**Author's Note:**

> [Minecraft Side Blog on Tumblr](https://leafgreenmineblr.tumblr.com/) \- come talk to me! Updates also go up on this tumblr and feel free to ask me anything
> 
> [Main Blog on Tumblr](https://redbutterflies-blueeyes.tumblr.com/)


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